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#Change11 On MOOC – my reflection part 2

Interesting article on MOOC here. Here is my response (also on FB): I was surprised that there wasn’t any mention of the pre-Stanford MOOCs, like CCK, CritLit, PLENK2010, led and developed by George Siemens, Stephen Downes, and Dave Cormier; David Wiley and Alec Couros Courses on Open Education and Tech etc. What might be the reasons for that? In the wikipedia, MOOCs have been well documented.

MOOCs are not new phenomenon, and are only new if we view Stanford, Udacity, MITx and edX as the main MOOCs recently introduced. On the assessment part, using auto-assessments have been in place for decades. Any one taking online knowledge test in driving would have experienced that first hand. Using auto-assessment to test knowledge (where knowledge is known, with correct answers) could be done based on softwares and technology. Peer assessment based on voting of best answers are sound if there are more than one “right” answers, but would be challenging if the assessment criteria are “too open”, leading to different interpretation. There are also possibility of over or under appraising one’s capability due to the inherent “issues” and “weaknesses” of the assessment system or tools. For instance, there are no ways of contextualization of the assessment tools to suit individual situations, leading to the mere checking of “factual” or “procedural” knowledge, and little on emergent or advanced knowledge which involved application at work. The use of eportfolios could be a good option, but this requires human intervention (experts, knowledgeable others, or crowd-assessment). There are also challenges on accreditation, where assessment system based on standardization would unlikely be appropriate in auditing such a complex system or network. How about the authenticity of the assessment – who are the participants really taking the test, quizzes, and assignments? Are they really who they are? Would someone be testing the system using non-human (like machine, AI)? How to ensure that there aren’t any plagiarism, cheating and “copying” of answers, assignments or portfolio evidences from others? How to quality assure the whole system of online education?

Hi Ken,
How do you see these post-modernist MOOCs? I could see lots of differences from the Connectivist MOOCs or Networked MOOCs. I would like to respond, but need to hear and learn more about how people feel and learn with those huge MOOCs.

I think the most important lesson (for me) with MOOC is not the mere understanding of its content (or mere remembering of facts or procedures in performing a task), but the importance and relevance of connectivity (who, why, and how) in helping one to achieve the goals, an understanding of the need of change – our state of mind (based on the pros and cons of openness), the importance and relevance of personal, group and network autonomy in one’s learning, and the merits and limitations of group/networks/collectives in solving problems and enhancing learning, creativity and innovation.

Ultimately, if I could make good use of the skills and “literacy” developed in tackling my day-to-day problems, and adopt strategies in managing and leading my life, then I reckon MOOC would make sense to my life.

I have conceived that MOOC would reach millions, or billions of educators and learners, and surely this wouldn’t be surprising, as reported in various posts.

It is a matter of time, when the new “waves” of education and learning bring the “old” ones down, and the emergent learning replaces part of the traditional learning, especially when such paradigm shifts become part of the educational movement around the globe.

It involves tectonic shift in education, with Higher Education the first to be “baptised”, if not “revolutionised”, in order to provide free, quality education to the world. Are we already part of this HUGE MOOC – with all the MOOCs blossoming with all its might?

I wonder if the connectivist-MOOCs/post-modernist MOOCs will follow a similar story as the old battle between BETA and VHS tapes (back in the pre-digital days), where the purportedly better product (BETA) succumbed to the more universally adopted (VHS) model.

Don’t hold your breath on the demise of the current HE model. It won’t fade quickly or easily from the scene. Too much money to be made, and too many people reliant upon it for their living.

Hi Ken,
Interesting analogy. VHS is now superseded by DVD, and Cloud aggregation, curation, and distribution through the media and webs (internet videos, Youtube).

How is the current HE model going to compete with these giant galaxies of formal education and informal learning in the internet – all filled with Udacity, edX, MOOCs, Networks, COPs, webs (a web of blogs), social media (FB, twitter)?

HE needs to leverage on those “affordances” to “resurrect”, as we have already witnessed the resurgence of higher education using different strategies like “flipping the classroom, class, education, or even the system” by some of the universities and FE colleges. This requires both courage in taking risks and leadership in steering education in the “right direction” and vision. But it also creates winners and failures, especially when the experiments didn’t work.

The use of more charismatic leaders to boost the morale and improve quality of education in individual institutions has been well known strategies for decades, but would that alone solve the problems?

Disruption due to technology, alternative “smarter” and “intelligent & pragmatic” education and learning cannot be solved alone by even the greatest leaders in the world, IMHO.

This is now a “system” and ecology problem, where supply and demand in education have gone imbalanced, especially when more learners are looking for better education, at a lower cost, and better teachers, resources, and learning environment.

Such challenges in current education model (HE in particular) is like the climate change, where we are feeling the heat, and the overall impact on each of us. It is not about money only, it is about how people could re-think the best uses of the abundant (not limited) resources available on the internet and webs. It requires sourcing the information, curating and feeding them to the audiences just like the newspapers that have been used for decades. It is where OER could be aggregated, reused, re-purposed, re-distributed and re-created to yield new and emergent education models, that would be relevant, based on just-in-time learning principles (without wastes, ideally, at the right time, right space, right cost, and right quality) that provides “best or optimum” values to each education system, educational institution, stakeholder, educator, learner.

This requires a total re-conceptualization of the education paradigm and the associated system, where the sole reliance of teacher – student interaction may need to be shifted to a wholesome enriching interaction and experience for educators and learners. Terry Anderson’s latest session on engagement model well illustrates those points.

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I would like to relate to Alex Kuskis’ comments provided here where he points to: The unaffordability of the American campus model, based on tuition price increases year after year, with students incurring immense debts, leading to a student loans crisis and financial bubble that will sooner or later burst, just as the housing bubble … Continue reading → […]